OK, there it is! A name. A phrase that can help us to begin to process what happened in the past and why we African Americans can't seem to be able to escape the nightmare of centuries ago. We have all wondered why certain behaviors and ideas continue to permeate within our communities around this nation. In his book, Solutions for Black America, Juwanza Kunjufu stresses that trauma refers to extreme stress that overwhlems. It includes responses to powerful, one-time incidents, natural disasters, crimes, surgeries, child abuse, neglect, combat, urban violence, battering relationships and deprivation. Arguably black people have been through all of that and more as a group.
No need for excuses. I'm not interested in offering any. However, the mainstream media continues to belittle the total impact past racism has had. African Americans have been segregated by law in the past, denied entrance and admission, hosed by police, harrassed by law enforcement agencies, spit on, chased by dogs, raped, beaten, castrated and lynched. And at the end of it there was no 12 step program to help us get over Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder. There were no psychotropic meds dispensed so that we could cope. So we are still traumatized.
The effects of the diabolical process of indoctirnating slaves, as pronouced by the master slave master, Wille Lynch, was supposed to last at least 500 years or better. So while we still suffer from the past, we must be encouraged that in only a mere 145years, we have been able to weave ourselves intricately and inextricably into the very fabric of our nation. We exist in every field of endeavor from law to medicine, to the sciences, engineering, politics and business. We look up and find ourselves under the leadership and guidance of a black president. It seems clear that we ourselves had not realized how far we had, in fact, come. Yet, there is something that keeps us all from truly coming together in full support of our own communities.
Here are some of the lingering effects of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder).
1. Associating being smart with acting White.
2. Beliveing that blacks are better at sports than science, music than math, rap than reading.
3. Niggeritis
4. Lack of Unity
5. Crab in a Barrel Syndrome
6. Defining good hair as straight
7. Defining pretty eyes as anything but dark brown
8. believing the lighter you are the
prettier you are
9. Associating work with slavery
10. Obession with material possessions
11. Non support of black leadership
12. Viewing black males as baby making sperm donors
13. Defining blackness through sports and entertainment.
Any African American will quickly tell you that he or she has encountered these behaviors first hand; if not daily. The question becomes, can we now begin to fully heal ourselves through the realization that it is a condition? This must be addressed if we are to lift ourselves out of this continued state of dispair.
We are in a new time and era, the moment our ancestors toiled for is at hand. If we are going to take advantage of all that we have accomplished, we must address, head on, the issues listed above.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Academic Welfare
Here's an idea. Lets give every failing student an America's urban schools access to an Independence Card and sign them up for Food Stamps right away. That way we avoid the pretence that schools are really preparing them to do anything else with their lives other than become dependent on the state. Because clearly this new ridiculous scheme of "Pay to Learn" being touted in cities like New York and Washington DC will yield nothing other than kids who believe that they have earned something by failing to perform.
Instead of facing the fact that we have simply failed to educate students, school leaders in major American cities are now offering cold, hard cash as a lure for learning. This is an extremely dangerous precedent that will eventually convince students, largely African American and Hispanic, that failure is to be rewarded. Conversely, students may actually seek to fail believing that by doing so; the system will be forced to pay them to improve.
We are not so completely bankrupt of ideas in education that we have to now bribe kids to read, write and compute. The achievement gap that exists between black and white students has been prevasive for decades. This "pay me to learn" trick is the latest in a long line of inept and mis-guided efforts to address an issue that extends far beyond the ability of the school to handle on its own.
In an recent NBC News story it was reported that almost $3 Million dollars has been secured, through grants and other sources, for a project in DC entitled "Capital Gains." Under the program, students who have traditionally failed to meet academic standards can earn as much as $100 every two weeks for studying and improving their scholastic performance.
While students seem more engaged, there is no real evidence that the "facts" they are memorizing is connected to a larger body of knowledge. The question of whether there is a congitive connection with the overall learning objectives remain in question.
Throughout the conversation with Michelle Rhee, the DC schools chancellor, not once was parental responsibility used as a means of ensuring student success. Do parents matter to Ms. Rhee, or has she unilaterally decided that "she knows best?"
This is an ill-conceived, short sighted ideology. In the absence of financial inducements, will students still be as motivated to learn? How will this financial burden be sustained by the school system once the private money has dried up? Do we want short term impulses or do we want long term academic success?
Our urban children are not lab rats to be victimized by every hair-brained experiment. They will have to compete in a world that does not, and will not, entice them with goodies for failing to perform. Ms. Rhee is a hard headed, stubborn, educational novice. She is recklessly "throwing everything we can at the problem," while ignoring sound advise from those who know better.
This trial and error mentality is not justified. It will only leave disaster in its wake.
Perhaps it would not be as insulting if wealthy, suburban communities were also made part of this exercise. After all, the best schools in the United States can harldly compete with avergae schools in other industrialized nations around the world. Why do we not offer this same experiment in the suburbs? We won't because well informed parents know better and would not allow their children to be turned into guinea pigs in this manner.
There are real solutions to the problems that plague urban schools. We have experienced, qualified and talented educators whose voices are being snuffed out and ignored for the sake a trendy new idea that does not stand a chance at success.
All I can say is get the Food Stamps ready.
Instead of facing the fact that we have simply failed to educate students, school leaders in major American cities are now offering cold, hard cash as a lure for learning. This is an extremely dangerous precedent that will eventually convince students, largely African American and Hispanic, that failure is to be rewarded. Conversely, students may actually seek to fail believing that by doing so; the system will be forced to pay them to improve.
We are not so completely bankrupt of ideas in education that we have to now bribe kids to read, write and compute. The achievement gap that exists between black and white students has been prevasive for decades. This "pay me to learn" trick is the latest in a long line of inept and mis-guided efforts to address an issue that extends far beyond the ability of the school to handle on its own.
In an recent NBC News story it was reported that almost $3 Million dollars has been secured, through grants and other sources, for a project in DC entitled "Capital Gains." Under the program, students who have traditionally failed to meet academic standards can earn as much as $100 every two weeks for studying and improving their scholastic performance.
While students seem more engaged, there is no real evidence that the "facts" they are memorizing is connected to a larger body of knowledge. The question of whether there is a congitive connection with the overall learning objectives remain in question.
Throughout the conversation with Michelle Rhee, the DC schools chancellor, not once was parental responsibility used as a means of ensuring student success. Do parents matter to Ms. Rhee, or has she unilaterally decided that "she knows best?"
This is an ill-conceived, short sighted ideology. In the absence of financial inducements, will students still be as motivated to learn? How will this financial burden be sustained by the school system once the private money has dried up? Do we want short term impulses or do we want long term academic success?
Our urban children are not lab rats to be victimized by every hair-brained experiment. They will have to compete in a world that does not, and will not, entice them with goodies for failing to perform. Ms. Rhee is a hard headed, stubborn, educational novice. She is recklessly "throwing everything we can at the problem," while ignoring sound advise from those who know better.
This trial and error mentality is not justified. It will only leave disaster in its wake.
Perhaps it would not be as insulting if wealthy, suburban communities were also made part of this exercise. After all, the best schools in the United States can harldly compete with avergae schools in other industrialized nations around the world. Why do we not offer this same experiment in the suburbs? We won't because well informed parents know better and would not allow their children to be turned into guinea pigs in this manner.
There are real solutions to the problems that plague urban schools. We have experienced, qualified and talented educators whose voices are being snuffed out and ignored for the sake a trendy new idea that does not stand a chance at success.
All I can say is get the Food Stamps ready.
Monday, June 15, 2009
What a Test Score Can Never Tell Us
One day, as a 14 year old high school freshman, an announcement came over the intercom informing us that a classmate had been murdered. Aubrey Porter, they said, was shot and killed; his body found discarded on a playground near the high school. Within weeks, LaSalle Anderson was discovered brutally beaten, shot, stabbed, dead. He'd been thrown in a trash dumpster behind the old, condemned bakery on Sarah Ave. Soon thereafter, my brother Willie, while playing with a loaded gun, shot and killed his best friend, Wilbert. It was a single bullet to the head. He arrived home with blood and brain matter still on his clothes.
You could only imagine that solving for the value of X on the upcoming state proficiency exam was, to say the least, unrealistic. These horrific and traumatic events were consistent, and permeated our lives almost to the point of numbness.
Those memories came flooding back as I continue to read the consistent stream of editorials bemoaning and insisting that additional academic services are to these children are of no measurable consequence.
I found myself wondering how it was possible for apparently detached, privileged, ill-informed, number crunchers on Capitol Hill and elsewhere to understand what goes in the lives of students growing up in urban areas around this country?
There is far more that meets the eye regarding student achievement than bottom line test results. Many urban kids are required to navigate a myriad of obstacles that threaten their survival and well being every day. As a student in similar circumstances, my mental, emotional, spiritual and psychological health was constantly besieged. My academic needs did not even make the top ten on a list of my most urgent issues!
It is not unusual for the average child growing up in urban America to face the realities of not only poverty, but, hunger, despair, homelessness, abuse, neglect and dysfunction. Many children contend with ruthless, prevalent criminal activity that pray on their innocence, seeking to recruit them into malevolence. They are forced to wade through drug and alcohol addicted streets under the prayer of arriving home safely. Therefore, tests and their subsequent results are a minor consequence in the minds of not just a few urban youth.
Test scores are not now, nor have they ever been in my opinion, the primary indicator of a student's intrinsic capabilities and talents. They tell us nothing about our students other than how they performed at one moment on one isolated day. If we are to use standardized exams for the purposes intended, we would concentrate on extrapolating the date to building individual program aimed at helping the child succeed.
Instead of pitting school systems, parents and educational service providers against one another in this absurd game of "gotcha," we should all be focused on how to improve upon what we have started. Rather than using the information as a legitimate quantitative measure to gauge performance and create real solutions, tests have become a tool to humiliate hard working teachers who struggle to keep these kids from sinking further into academic abyss. It is the hammer that will come down hard on the principal, working an average of 80+ hours a week, doing everything their training has taught them to reach parent and child alike.
Teaching is a humanistic endeavor and it is not for the faint of heart. Giving from one's soul every single day can leave you drained, overwhelmed and exhausted. You need only ask those who have left the profession all together.
We must encourage the millions of teachers around this nation who are dedicated to delivering quality learning experiences. Teachers plant seeds of knowledge that will not manifest and bear fruit, in many cases, for decades.
So whose study do we believe: Rand, The Center for Education Policy, The National Education Association and the National Association for Educational Progress? Whose numbers represent a true depiction of what works?
Clearly, if we are looking for substantive results from our students, we must do more to consider the entire human being and hold the test results in their proper perspective as a tool to design an appropriate strategy for academic improvement.
You could only imagine that solving for the value of X on the upcoming state proficiency exam was, to say the least, unrealistic. These horrific and traumatic events were consistent, and permeated our lives almost to the point of numbness.
Those memories came flooding back as I continue to read the consistent stream of editorials bemoaning and insisting that additional academic services are to these children are of no measurable consequence.
I found myself wondering how it was possible for apparently detached, privileged, ill-informed, number crunchers on Capitol Hill and elsewhere to understand what goes in the lives of students growing up in urban areas around this country?
There is far more that meets the eye regarding student achievement than bottom line test results. Many urban kids are required to navigate a myriad of obstacles that threaten their survival and well being every day. As a student in similar circumstances, my mental, emotional, spiritual and psychological health was constantly besieged. My academic needs did not even make the top ten on a list of my most urgent issues!
It is not unusual for the average child growing up in urban America to face the realities of not only poverty, but, hunger, despair, homelessness, abuse, neglect and dysfunction. Many children contend with ruthless, prevalent criminal activity that pray on their innocence, seeking to recruit them into malevolence. They are forced to wade through drug and alcohol addicted streets under the prayer of arriving home safely. Therefore, tests and their subsequent results are a minor consequence in the minds of not just a few urban youth.
Test scores are not now, nor have they ever been in my opinion, the primary indicator of a student's intrinsic capabilities and talents. They tell us nothing about our students other than how they performed at one moment on one isolated day. If we are to use standardized exams for the purposes intended, we would concentrate on extrapolating the date to building individual program aimed at helping the child succeed.
Instead of pitting school systems, parents and educational service providers against one another in this absurd game of "gotcha," we should all be focused on how to improve upon what we have started. Rather than using the information as a legitimate quantitative measure to gauge performance and create real solutions, tests have become a tool to humiliate hard working teachers who struggle to keep these kids from sinking further into academic abyss. It is the hammer that will come down hard on the principal, working an average of 80+ hours a week, doing everything their training has taught them to reach parent and child alike.
Teaching is a humanistic endeavor and it is not for the faint of heart. Giving from one's soul every single day can leave you drained, overwhelmed and exhausted. You need only ask those who have left the profession all together.
We must encourage the millions of teachers around this nation who are dedicated to delivering quality learning experiences. Teachers plant seeds of knowledge that will not manifest and bear fruit, in many cases, for decades.
So whose study do we believe: Rand, The Center for Education Policy, The National Education Association and the National Association for Educational Progress? Whose numbers represent a true depiction of what works?
Clearly, if we are looking for substantive results from our students, we must do more to consider the entire human being and hold the test results in their proper perspective as a tool to design an appropriate strategy for academic improvement.
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